In 1943, author Clifford Goldsmith and actresses Mary Rolfe, Ann Lincoln, Mary Shipp, and Charita Bauer posed with a cake in celebration of the fifth anniversary of The Aldrich Family radio program. Goldsmith wrote the show's scripts.
Margaret Towell (1921 – ?) Kathryn Allen (1933 – 1971, his death)
Children
1 daughter 4 sons
Parent(s)
Charles Goldsmith and Edith Henshaw Goldsmith
Clifford Goldsmith (March 29, 1899 – July 11, 1971) was an American writer, best known for his play What a Life, from which The Aldrich Family radio and television series and the Henry Aldrich film series were derived.[1] In 1943, Time magazine reported that Goldsmith earned "radio's fattest writing fee ($3,000 for one show a week)."[2]
Early years
Goldsmith was born in East Aurora, New York,[1] the son of Charles Goldsmith and Edith Henshaw Goldsmith.[3] His father was the local high school's principal.[4] Goldsmith's mother died in 1907; he and his half-sister were orphaned when their father died in 1909. They spent much time thereafter with an aunt in Centerville, New York, where he spent most of his childhood.[3]
In the early 1920s, Goldsmith tried acting, with bit parts in stage productions, including Chautauquas,[5] in New York. In 1922, he began working with publicity for the National Dairy Council, a job that he kept until 1938.[6]
Henry Aldrich
In 1943, Time called Henry Aldrich "U.S. radio's favorite juvenile")[2] Decades later, Encyclopedia.com described him as "The quintessential teenager of the 1940s."[7]
Aldrich first was seen in 1938 as the main character of Goldsmith's Broadway play What A Life.[1] The play opened at the Biltmore Theatre[8] on April 13, 1938.[9] It ran for 538 performances[10] and was adapted into a film (also called What a Life) that was released in 1939.
A radio adaptation, The Aldrich Family, was broadcast from 1939 to 1953.[11] Goldsmith was the show's sole writer for approximately seven years; thereafter, he supervised the work of other writers.[12] A television adaptation, also titled The Aldrich Family, was broadcast from 1949 to 1953.[13] Goldsmith was that program's sole writer for its first year, and after that he collaborated with other writers.[12]
Goldsmith based his writings on what he observed in the lives of Peter and Thayer White, his wife's sons from a previous marriage.[5]
Other television
Programs for which Goldsmith "consulted or collaborated in the writing" included The Flying Nun, Leave it to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, Petticoat Junction, and Dennis the Menace.[3]
Personal life
On July 2, 1921, Goldsmith married Margaret Towell in New York City.[3] In 1933, he married Kathryn Allen.[5] They had been married 38 years at the time of his death.[1]
^ abOthman, Frederick C. (March 30, 1939). "Hollywood Day By Day". The Danville Morning News. Pennsylvania, Danville. United Press. p. 2. Retrieved May 24, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 205. ISBN978-0-7864-6477-7.
